166 World Championships Day 2

Tang Yan and Sun Yang, headed back to their section in the stands.

Their arrival instantly detonated the auditorium. On the first day, they won 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal altogether, attracting fans' wishing for signatures and group photos.

Tang Yan also experienced the feeling of being truly sought after for the first time.

It was extremely flattering.

It wasn't until the race was about to start, that the surrounding fans returned to their original seats under the guidance of security guards, but from the gazes cast over from time to time, it was clear to see that they all wanted to sit with Tang Yan and Sun Yang.

The upcoming race was the men's 50-meter butterfly which would be followed by the women's 200-meter medley competition. Zhou Jiawei and Shi Yang were up for the men's team and Ye Shiwen for the women's team.

Shi Yang appeared in the first group. The only other well-known swimmer in the group was Australia's Matthew Targett, one of the swimmers from the Australian 4X100m freestyle relay team.

Shi Yang's debut attracted a cheer from the audience, but Targett's debut instantly drew booing from the Chinese fans.

From this, the audience's dissatisfaction with Targett and the Australian team could clearly be felt.

This hissing and booing also quickly attracted Targett's dissatisfaction and his deeply frowning expression showed that he was trying to control his emotions.

After the swimmers got ready on the take-off platform, they all dove into the water with the sound of the buzzer.

The cheers of the audience then sounded, deafening.

Both Tang Yan and Sun Yang being among the stands felt the brunt of the cheers, they felt their  eardrums tremor, the enthusiasm of the audience was extremely contagious.

Shi Yang's talents and strength was very outstanding. With the cheers of the home audience, he showed off his skill and swam a personal best score of 23 seconds 67, ranking second in the group, and smoothly entered the semi-finals.

It was the Australian Targett who won the group. The latter was naturally pleased with himself and made sure to bask in the glory after his victory. After the race, he didn't forget to get back at the crowd, stunting and flexing in front of the pool, venting his inner dissatisfaction.

This soon drew another round of booing from the audience but the Australian this time enjoyed himself and kept mocking those booing.

Tang Yan couldn't help but frown.

He had watched the interview video yesterday. Their speech was full of disdain and disregard, he thought that after the backlash from online and the media, they would try to keep a low profile, but instead they maintained the same attitude and showed no regret.

The 50-meter butterfly stroke preliminaries continued, but unfortunately showing his age the veteran Zhou Jiawei performed poorly coming forth in his group, missing out on the semi-finals, and ending his run.

After the 50-meter butterfly group stages were over, the preliminary round of the 200-meter freestyle followed.

Because of Ye Shiwen's debut, the mood of the audience was ignited again.

Ye Shiwen's strength in the medley had been revealed at the national championships. She easily and happily completed the group stage. She won her group with a time of 2:11:21 and advanced to the semi-finals.

After the race, Ye Shiwen waved in the direction of Tang Yan and Sun Yang, which caused the audience to cheer again.

There was also the men's 100-meter breaststroke and the women's 100-meter butterfly stroke later on in the morning but Tang Yan and Sun Yang didn't stay, they left the gymnasium before the race began. China's strength in these two projects was relatively poor,

Although the coach had given them a day's rest, in order to maintain form, they still had to train in the afternoon.

In the semifinals in the afternoon, Shi Yang performed abnormally and ranked fifth in the end missing out on the finals that night.

Such a result was unexpected, but this was Shi Yang's first time participating in the World Championships. It was inevitable that there would be some fluctuations in his performance and  mentality, so whilst disappointing no one was too hard on him.

However, in an interview before the finals, the Australian Tagget seemingly couldn't help but stir up more trouble, a reporter digging for a headline asked him about Shi Yang and Zhou Jiawei both failing to make it into the finals and instead of ignoring him and moving on.

Having already been booed twice, Tagget actually answered: "Well this is the strength of Chinese swimmers. Without the help of something extra, they can't even reach the finals. This is the best proof."

Instantly the internet blew up and as did the new stations smelling controversy.

His remarks quickly attracted hate from netizens. Well-known sports personel directly affiliated with the China Swimming Federation on Weibo lashed out, insulting him, firing off post after post. After continuous fermentation, dissatisfaction had reached a peak and many ignored internal orders not to respond.

But all this fell to the background as during the 50-meter butterfly final that night, Australia's Tagget and Geoff Huegill were overpowered, as the Brazilian swimmer Cesar Cielo came in and snatched gold from them.

The audience and netizens' went wild mocking the situation, with many calling him a "Friend of China".

However some netizens responded negatively, what was everyone cheering for, this just proved that there was no one in Chinese butterfly swimming who could stand up for them and they could only rely on others for revenge.

Fortunately, in the 200-meter medley final, Ye Shiwen performed well. She beat Australian star Alicia Coutts and American star Ariana Kukors to win gold, their only medal that day.

....

It was against this background that the World Championships ushered in the third day.

The third match day was compact with a total of 5 events, the schedule was quite compact, and more importantly, the highly anticipated 100-meter freestyle was today.